Hospital centers are organized in multiple departments. Several departments rely on the principle of two bins, as shown on FIG. 1, for storing products. This particular replenishment system provides storage for a same product in two bins: a primary bin and a secondary bin. The primary and secondary bins are provided with a distinct identification tag. Products stored in the primary bin are used first, and when the primary bin is empty, the corresponding identification tag is removed from the primary bin and affixed to a provisioning board located nearby.
Presence of the identification tag of the primary bin on the provisioning board indicates that the primary bin is empty and must be provisioned. Until the primary bin is provisioned, products stored in the secondary bin are used. When the secondary bin becomes empty prior to provisioning of its corresponding primary bin, both corresponding identification tags are affixed to the provisioning board.
As various products are needed in hospital departments, racks are provided. Each rack typically stores multiple supplies, and two bins are used for each product.
Canadian Patent Application 2,565,934 describes such a replenishment system, in which the identification tags are Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, and a provisioning board is adapted to read the RFID tags so as to automatically generate a provisioning request. This solution alleviates the hinder of provisioning by automating the generation of provisioning requests.
Upon receipt of the new provisions, the products are stored in the primary and secondary bins, and the corresponding RFID tags are put back on the respective bins. To ensure proper automatic generation of provisioning requests, it is necessary that the RFID tags be put back on the rightful bin. The use of RFID tags in this type of replenishment system has greatly improved provisioning turn around time and stock management.
It would be useful to have a system and method for systematizing provisioning of supplies to the two bins replenishment system.